For the past seven years, Sherry Morrow has used the greenhouse at Bradford District High School to teach students life lessons.
But that’s her job. She is an educational assistant who runs a Life Skills group in her spare time.
That is what earned Morrow a Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers, a new national award that replaces the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award.
She has spent hundreds of hours outside of the classroom with students and volunteers – showing them how to raise food in a community garden, and helping them discover new skills through gardening.
The community garden is on school property. During the school year, the vegetables and herbs that are grown go to the hospitality class at the high school, but during the summer, as soon as school ends, Morrow and her volunteers tend the garden and share the produce with the LOFT Community Services, a residence for vulnerable seniors. Families in need are also welcome to grow a vegetable garden in the space.
Surprisingly, when it comes to gardening, Morrow said she was a “late bloomer.”
“I grew up in the projects of Toronto,” she said. It was not until she came to Bradford 25 years ago that she began to teach herself about plants.
Morrow appropriated the greenhouse space at the high school seven years ago when it was sitting empty. She began to grow plants and engage the Life Skills students.
“It’s a stress-free room. Peaceful. It’s all about the smell, the texture, the soil texture, the growing of plants, the life cycle. It’s all a learning experience.”
The students plant the seeds, tend and water the growing plants, and then transplant the seedlings into bigger pots or into the garden.
“They see what they have to do,” said Morrow. “How they have to be gentle, what part of the plant to touch.”
They dig, weed, harvest, and learn about sharing and responsibility. And even if they never get a job in horticulture, she said, “one day they may have their own garden.”
At the start of May, the greenhouse is filled with plants — more than 1,200 of them. There are tomato plants and pepper plants grown from seed. Squash, artichokes, lettuce, radishes, marigolds to provide natural pest control in the garden, decorative coleus plants, annuals and herbs, borage for bees, and milkweed for monarch butterflies.
Some will be planted in the outdoor garden and elsewhere at the high school in the coming weeks — a little delayed by this year’s late spring. The rest are earmarked for the outdoor community garden and the courtyard’s outdoor classroom, but also for the annual fundraising plant sale May 14-18.
There’s no school budget for the gardening program. Morrow and her students rely on saved and donated seeds, compost created by collecting organic waste at the school, and volunteer labour.
The money raised through the plant sale helps the program be “completely self-sufficient,” Morrow said. This year, it is augmented by a $500 grant, which will be used to upgrade a garden shed and purchase rain barrels.
“Mrs. Morrow has made a world of difference to our school and greater community with her vigilant support of our school greenhouse and outdoor garden programs,” said Bradford District High School principal Peter Stone. “For years, Sherry has supported learning by helping students build understanding of planting and caring for a wide variety of herbs, vegetables and ornamental plants. We congratulate Mrs. Morrow on her award and successful service to our school and community.”
Morrow called the volunteer award, which she received April 17, “kind of nice” but does not see her efforts as anything special.
“I don’t feel like I’m doing work when I’m volunteering. It’s like vacation time for me. The time goes by fast.”
There are lessons for everyone in gardening, said Morrow. “Small things make big things happen. You take a seed, and you grow food!”
That is why she volunteers so much of her time to help residents and youth, beyond the classroom, discover the joys of growing.
“It takes a village to raise a child. I feel I’m part of the Bradford village.”
